“As in the nature of things, those which most admirably flourish, most swiftly fester, those that are most blooming are soonest turned into the opposite.” These words are taken from a naturalist of antiquity, Pliny the Elder, a Roman who was thirteen years old when Christ died. His observations can be applied to a pair of third-century men whose friendship did indeed admirably flourish, only to fester into a bitterness of feeling that makes for a story reminiscent of an ancient Greek drama..."